Cigarettes, cigars, and pipes are popular smoking articles that employ tobacco in various forms. Such smoking articles are employed by heating or burning tobacco to generate aerosol (e.g., smoke) that may be inhaled by the smoker. Popular smoking articles, such as cigarettes, have a substantially cylindrical rod shaped structure and include a charge, roll or column of smokable material such as shredded tobacco (e.g., in cut filler form) surrounded by a paper wrapper thereby forming a so-called “tobacco rod.” Normally, a cigarette has a cylindrical filter element aligned in an end-to-end relationship with the tobacco rod. Typically, a filter element comprises plasticized cellulose acetate tow circumscribed by a paper material known as “plug wrap.” Certain cigarettes incorporate a filter element having multiple segments, and one of those segments can comprise activated charcoal particles. Typically, the filter element is attached to one end of the tobacco rod using a circumscribing wrapping material known as “tipping paper.” It also has become desirable to perforate the tipping material and plug wrap, in order to provide dilution of drawn mainstream smoke with ambient air. A cigarette is employed by a smoker by lighting one end thereof and burning the tobacco rod. The smoker then receives mainstream smoke into his/her mouth by drawing on the opposite end (e.g., the filter end) of the cigarette.
The sensory attributes of cigarette smoke can be enhanced by applying additives to tobacco and/or by otherwise incorporating flavoring materials into various components of a cigarette. See, Leffingwell et al., Tobacco Flavoring for Smoking Products, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (1972). The primary function of such additives/flavoring components is to enhance the tobacco flavors produced upon heating or combusting the tobacco material within the smoking article, or to provide additional non-tobacco flavors such as mint and/or menthol. Menthol, in particular, is a common flavorant for use, e.g., in cigarettes and pipe tobacco. It is used mainly because of the refreshing/cooling effects it can impart to tobacco smoke. Menthol is a flavorant with a high degree of volatility at room temperature, which can make control of menthol concentration in smoking articles difficult. Other flavorants have also been used. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,006,347 to Keaton et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,236,244 to Harlow et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,344,796 to Yamaji et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,426,011 to Parmerter et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,972,335 to Tiggelbeck et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,390 to Nichols et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,137,034 to Perfetti et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,964 to Dermain et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,949 to Battard et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,306 to Beauman et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,998 to Gellatly et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,516,809 to Schumacher et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,325,859 to de Roos et al.
For example, one type of tobacco flavoring additive is menthol. See, Borschke, Rec. Adv. Tob. Sci., 19, p. 47-70, 1993. Various proposed methods for modifying the sensory attributes of cigarettes have involved suggestion that filter elements may be used as vehicles for adding flavor to the mainstream smoke of those cigarettes. US Pat. Appl. Pub. No. 2002/0166563 to Jupe et al. proposes the placement of adsorbent and flavor-releasing materials in a cigarette filter. US Pat. Appl. Pub. No. 2002/0020420 to Xue et al. proposes the placement of fibers containing small particle size adsorbents/absorbents in the filter. U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,486 to Dube et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,862,905 to Green, Jr. et al. propose the placement of a flavor-containing pellet in a cigarette filter. Other representative types of cigarette filters incorporating flavoring agents are set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,972,335 to Tiggelbeck et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,098 to Owens, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,281,671 to Byrne; U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,391 to Woods et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,829 to Thesing et al.
There are many different routes for the addition of flavorants to smoking articles. For example, liquid flavorant compositions can be sprayed directly onto tobacco or can be applied to various components of the smoking articles (e.g., wrapping material, the tobacco rod, and/or the filter plug). As another example, such flavorants can be applied in melted form, in combination with one or more additional components. See, for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,098 to Owens et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,409,995 to Nichols et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,078 to Deutsch et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,909 to Gentry et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,529 to Mane et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,997 to Smith et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 7,381,277 to Gonterman et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 7,810,508 to Wyss-Peters et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 9,554,594 to Clark et al.; U.S. Pat. Appl. Pub. No. 2013/0167851 to Adenne et al.; and Int. Pat. Appl. Pub. No. WO2014/019804 to Ferarazzin et al. Known methods for the addition of flavorants have several shortcomings. For example, where liquid flavorant compositions are used, flavorant can evaporate during the preparation of the liquid flavorant composition, resulting in fluctuations in concentration of each flavorant therein. Similarly, where flavorant is added to a melted composition to be applied to the smoking article component, it is difficult to control the exact concentration of that flavorant due, e.g., to evaporation of the flavorant during addition. Such methods also typically employ diluents and/or carriers, which limit the amount of flavorant that is actually applied onto the smoking article component. It would be beneficial to provide alternate means and/or processes for applying flavor-containing compositions to smoking articles.